The Cost Of Friendship
by Kodi Prime
Summary: Tension rises between Optimus and Ironhide when the Autobot school is attacked by the Decepticons and they're forced to evacuate to Rogue territory.
1. Chapter 1

**The Cost Of Friendship**

Chapter 1

The building was large and dull. It was made of huge grey slabs, a grey roof, grey doors, and grey windows. There weren't any trees around it, and the grass around it was completely dead. No matter the weather around the building, it was like there was a force field around it, keeping out the sun and the birds and the animals. It was always dark and dreary.  
If you didn't know the area, you would think it was the dungeon, where the Autobot's prisoners were taken to be tortured.  
You wouldn't be far off, but…  
That wasn't the case.  
It was towards this dark and dreary building that Ironhide raced, trying to get there as fast as he could carrying at least twenty giant, heavy bags.  
After a minute he finally got through the door and, running at full pelt, crashed headfirst into Optimus.  
"Whoa, watch where you're going, Hide!" Optimus smiled, "Where's the fire?"  
"I'm late, Prime." Ironhide growled, scooting around his friend.  
Optimus glanced at the clock on the wall.  
"We've got two minutes before class starts. That's plenty of time."  
"Class is across the other side of the building." Ironhide reminded him.  
Optimus rolled his optics.  
"Well, it's not like we'd get in trouble."  
"No." Ironhide agreed, "_You_ won't, because _you're_ you. I'm me. You're teacher's pet. You can get away with anything. I can't."  
Optimus sighed.  
"All right." He said finally. "We'll do it your way. Just this once."  
When they got to class they were late, but Sentinel hadn't arrived yet. Ironhide followed Optimus to the back of the classroom, and watched his friend collapse backwards on the desk, so that he was lying across the whole thing. Ironhide sighed and dragged his feet as he went round the table to collapse in his seat, dropping all his bags on the floor. Optimus' head tilted towards him.  
"You haven't unpacked yet?"  
"You know the answer to that question bloody well, Prime." He growled at him. Optimus peered at him with amused optics.  
"And why is that?"  
"Because it's your fault I couldn't unpack."  
"How so?"  
"Because you're the one who stopped me from getting through the door."  
"Ah ha!" Optimus sat bolt upright and swivelled round on the desk so he was facing Ironhide. "But I didn't stop you."  
"Oh yeah? How'd you work that one out?"  
"I didn't make you late. That was your own fault." Optimus reminded him. "You got to school late. We were talking for all of two seconds before we came here. If you'd just come with me, you would be safely unpacked by now, and still be here on time."  
Ironhide blinked, trying to figure out what he'd just said.  
"Aack. I give up with you."  
Optimus smiled and shrugged and barely glanced up as a couple of femmes walked through the door, caught sight of him and squealed.  
Ironhide glanced at them, and turned to Optimus.  
"How do you do it?"  
"Do what?"  
"Get so popular with both the teachers _and_ the students?" Ironhide asked wistfully. "If I start getting popular with either group I get completely unpopular with the other."  
Optimus shrugged again.  
"I don't know. Trust me; I'd rather not have fan-femmes."  
Ironhide chuckled.  
"Maybe not, but you've got them, my friend." He cocked his head. "I wish I had fan-femmes."  
"You would regret that if you actually had any." Optimus replied with a shudder.  
"It must be awesome to be loved by all the femmes…" Ironhide continued, clearly not listening.  
"It's not."  
"You can go out with anyone you want, and they won't say no."  
"They do that for popularity. Not love. Bragging rights." Optimus pulled his bag onto the table and started looking through it.  
"Optimus, could you sit down please?" Sentinel asked as he came in.  
Optimus glanced at the old man and sat down in his seat, between Ironhide, who quickly got all his bags off the table at the teacher's entrance, and the wall.  
"Right." Sentinel started. "As the more vigilant of you can see, we have a new student starting here today."  
Ironhide blinked. He was vigilant. How did he miss that? The new kid was standing right in front of him!  
Sentinel looked around the room and his dull blue optics landed on Ironhide.  
"Bumblebee, you can take the empty seat there at the back of the room, next to Ironhide. Ironhide, you'll be showing Bumblebee here around."  
Ironhide smiled inwardly at the smaller bot's name. Bumblebee? What kind of name was that?  
Then he heard the second part of Sentinel's sentence.  
"Er … what?"  
Optimus snickered quietly next to him.  
"If you wanna be popular, don't argue with the teacher." He murmured. As usual, Sentinel turned a blind eye. Ironhide gave him a look.  
Optimus didn't even notice, since he was still too busy looking for something in his bag.  
"Please don't tell me I didn't pack it."  
Ironhide looked anxiously round as Bumblebee came and sat next to him, giving him a nervous smile.  
"All right." Sentinel sighed. "Optimus, Ironhide, Bumblebee will be sharing your dorm. Take him up there now so he can unpack, and I'll let your teacher know you'll be late to your first lesson. Go!"  
Optimus quickly left, Ironhide grabbed all his bags and hurried after his friend, Bumblebee on his heels. Sentinel rolled his eyes as they got to the front.  
"Ironhide, try to get back early enough to unpack next time."  
Ironhide quickly nodded as he rushed outside, and crashed into Optimus again.  
"Ironhide, you have got to stop with the crashing into me all the time." Optimus scolded mockingly, his light, deep chuckle giving him away.  
"So where's your dorm?" Bumblebee asked nervously.  
"You can say 'our', you know." Optimus told the younger boy. "It's your dorm now as well."  
Bumblebee shifted uncomfortably, but they could tell he felt a little bit better at the older bot's kindness.  
Ironhide and Optimus headed up the stairs, Bumblebee right behind them the whole way, somehow managing to drag all his bags up there with him.  
Their dorm was a medium-sized room on the top floor of the school building. Bumblebee's arrival had clearly been pre-scheduled, as there was already a third bed shoved in with the other two.  
At the moment, the only sign that the room was lived in was the crumpled mattress on Optimus' bed, and his belongings littered on it and on the small cupboard next to it. Bumblebee noticed something on the floor near the door.  
"What's this?" he asked, picking it up and dangling it from his hand. It was a small, delicate silver chain with a tiny locket at the end.  
"Gah-that's mine." Optimus quickly took the locket off the younger bot. "I must've dropped it on the way out this morning."  
Ironhide snickered. Optimus gave him a glare and sat on his bed, putting the locket away safely in one of his drawers.  
Bumblebee shrugged and looked questioningly at Ironhide.  
"So where do I sleep?" he asked uncertainly.  
"Over there." Ironhide replied, pointing at the unoccupied bed.  
Bumblebee nodded and shut the door behind him as he came into the room properly.  
"Gaah-ah-ah … WHAT is this?"  
Optimus and Ironhide looked up at his voice.  
"What?" Optimus asked.  
"THAT." Bumblebee pointed at the door.  
At all the chains and bolts and locks that dangled and jingled as the door shut.  
"Oh." Optimus said dismissively.  
"'Oh'?" Bumblebee asked him. "What is 'oh'?"  
Optimus started looking through his bag again.  
"What are you looking for?" Ironhide asked him boredly from where he was lounging on his bed. He looked from Optimus to the door and back again. "Wait, don't tell me-"  
"Ah ha!" Optimus exclaimed in triumph, holding up another lock and key. He took it over to the door, gently pushing Bumblebee in the direction of his bed, and started to install it with all the others.  
"You're getting paranoid, my old friend." Ironhide said, shaking his head.  
"You're one to call _me_ old." Optimus smirked, quickly finishing with the lock and stepping back to admire his handiwork. "And it's not paranoia."  
"What is it then?"  
"You know as well as I do that those femmes take any chance they get to sneak in here."  
Ironhide thought about it for a minute.  
"That is true." He admitted. "But I still think you're going way too extreme here. One lock would do the trick."  
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, my friend."  
Bumblebee looked between the two older bots, and was confused.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The night was dark, the only light appearing in the corridors the moonlight filtering through the windows. The building was silent, the only sounds those that come with sleep. Except…  
"Where are we going, Ironhide?" Optimus hissed as the two Autobots snuck down the corridor.  
"I want to check something out."  
"What, and you're too scared to go alone?"  
"No. You were sitting there awake, and you followed me. Remember?"  
Optimus shrugged.  
"Vaguely."  
Ironhide rolled his optics as he led his friend to the storeroom near the teachers' rooms.  
"You came all this way … to check out the store room?"  
"Sort of. Something in it."  
"How do you know what's in it?"  
"I had a snoop during break."  
Optimus stared at him.  
"We need to find you something to do in your spare time." He said.  
Ironhide opened the door to the cupboard and looked around. Everything was exactly as he'd left it. There was no sign of life anywhere.  
"Well, if you _must_ insist on coming," Ironhide whispered, letting his friend in and shutting the door behind the two of them. "You can wait here and make sure none of the teachers find out I'm gone. You're not gonna get in trouble."  
"What do you mean 'gone'?"  
Ironhide pushed a large chest of drawers out of the way, revealing a trapdoor underneath.  
"It's a tunnel. I went a little way down, but I didn't have time to figure out where it leads to."  
"So why are you looking now?"  
"The suspense was killing me."  
Ironhide opened the trapdoor, and it fell to the ground with a crash, making both boys jump guiltily. Ironhide quickly climbed through the trapdoor and into the tunnel. It was dark and damp down here. The cupboard was pretty much the school's basement, so he knew he was underground. That, and the fact that the tunnel he was following quickly led him into the sewer. After a few minutes of walking, he saw that there was another trapdoor in the ceiling, by the far wall, with a ladder leading up to it. Ironhide went over to it nervously, and climbed the ladder, hesitating for only a minute before he pushed the trapdoor open a crack and peered out.  
He found himself in a basement just like the one he had just left. Same size and shape, dark and cluttered. For a moment he thought he'd circled round by accident, but then he realised: Optimus wasn't there. He might've abandoned him down there and gone back to bed, but … Optimus wasn't that kind of person. Which meant he was no longer in the school…  
Ironhide pushed the trapdoor open the rest of the way, careful not to let it fall down to the ground, and climbed out quietly. He shut the trapdoor behind him and went over to the basement steps, climbing them up to the door. He opened it a little and peered out. He found himself looking at a dark, empty corridor.  
When he was satisfied that there was no one there, Ironhide slipped through the basement door and shut it carefully behind him.  
"Don't you dare move." A femme's voice hissed behind him. It was a creepy effect. Ironhide turned slowly to face the femme that had spoken. He hadn't noticed her. She was wearing a battle helmet, the battle mask raised. "Who are you?"  
"My name's Ironhide." Ironhide whispered back. "What's yours?"  
"Clara." The femme was eyeing him with curious optics. "I've not seen you around here before. Are you new?"  
"Huh? No, I've … wait. I've been here for years. I've never seen you here before."  
"You're kidding. I know pretty much every face there is in this school."  
"School? Great. Optimus must've abandoned me then. I'm back here."  
"Who's Optimus?"  
Ironhide peered at the femme.  
"You don't know who Optimus is?" her face remained blank and questioning. "Well, he'll be thrilled when he meets you. Finally an Autobot who-"  
"Autobot?" Clara took a step back, drawing a sword from a sheath at her hip, attached to the tool belt she wore at her waist. "What do you want here?"  
Ironhide was shocked. Then it finally clicked.  
"Oh, shit. I didn't actually mean to leave Autobot turf. Where am I?"  
"Rogue boarding school."  
"Oh. Okay. That's lucky. At least it's not for Decepticons."  
Clara hadn't moved. She still had a sword pointed at his throat.  
"Seriously, this was all a big mistake. I'm not gonna hurt you."  
Clara relaxed slightly.  
"How did you get in here?"  
"Tunnel, leads from the basement of my school to yours. Weird, huh?"  
"Not really. Rogues are allied with Autobots. If one of the schools gets attacked, the tunnel is used to get the students safely to the other school. The Decepticons don't even know it exists."  
Ironhide raised an eyebrow.  
"Neat."  
"So what are you doing up and looking around sewer tunnels in the middle of the night?"  
"I found the tunnel at break this morning, and I was trying to figure out where it went. What about you?"  
"I couldn't sleep. I always wander around when I can't sleep. It helps me clear my head, helps me think."  
"You're like Optimus. You have so much brain space up there that you get bored if you're not doing something. Wandering around helps him think too."  
"So who is Optimus?" She asked him curiously. "I used to know an Optimus..."  
"He's like … the most popular kid in the Autobot School."  
"As popular as you?"  
"Huh? No, much more popular. I'm not popular at all. He and Bumblebee are pretty much my only friends." Ironhide admitted.  
"Oh. Sorry." Clara tilted her head. "I'll be your friend." She offered. "I think you're sweet."  
Ironhide blinked in surprise.  
"Seriously?" he asked.  
"Yeah."  
"Thanks … I think."  
Clara chuckled lightly.  
"Guys and femmes aren't never gonna understand each other." She said, "So there's not really a point in trying to decipher some of the things the other says."  
"I guess that's true." Ironhide agreed. "So do you have any friends or family?"  
Clara shifted slightly.  
"I have a couple of friends, parents, and two sisters." She replied, "I normally just keep my distance, I don't like getting too close to people."  
Ironhide smiled.  
"But you're not pushing me away."  
She tilted her head at him.  
"You won't hurt me."

"I swear, Optimus, she's so cool." Ironhide was saying dreamily the next morning.  
"Yeah, I'm really happy for you, Hide." Optimus told him from where he was searching around the room for his workbook, "but will you please stop going on about her? You know I get nervous when people talk about femmes. It makes me think of fan-femmes."  
Ironhide glanced at his friend, who was looking under his bed, and brought up the courage to tell him.  
"I arranged to meet her tonight."  
Optimus was so shocked at that piece of news that he banged his bed on the underside of his bed.  
"You've WHAT?"  
"Arranged to meet her tonight."  
Optimus carefully crawled out from under the bed this time, so as not to hit his head again, his workbook in his hand.  
"Bad idea, Hide."  
"Why? Because you're worried she's gonna become one of your fan-femmes?"  
"No."  
"Why then?"  
"Because if you start going out with her, you'll start wanting to come in here with her, and I am NOT having a femme in here." He looked at him. "Besides, you know nothing about her. What if she hurts you?"  
"You haven't even met her."  
"I know. I'm not saying I have." Optimus rumbled, not bothering to stand up and walk as he instead crawled over to his bag to tuck his workbook safely inside. "What will you be doing with her tonight?"  
"She's offered to show me around her school." Ironhide replied, checking his bag to make sure he had everything he needed, "I want to get to know her."  
"You're leaving school … just to look around another school?"  
"Well, yeah."  
Optimus burst out laughing hard enough to wake Bumblebee up with a start.  
"Huh? What?"  
"Wake up, Bumblebee." Optimus chuckled, "We're gonna be late."  
He was desperately trying to change the subject, to stop himself from laughing, but it wasn't working. For some reason, he was just making himself laugh harder and harder.  
Bumblebee and Ironhide exchanged shocked looks and stared at Optimus.  
"Should we take him to the medic?" Bumblebee asked uncertainly.  
"I think we might have to." Ironhide replied, "I've never known him laugh this much. It wasn't even that funny."  
Bumblebee climbed out of his bed and went over to Optimus.  
"Are you all right?" he asked the older bot.  
"Yeah." Optimus had calmed down now, back to his normal serious self. "I'm fine. Sorry about that."  
They were interrupted by a squeak from Ironhide.  
"Look!"  
He was pointing at the door. Several of the locks were broken and falling apart. It looked like someone had tried to force their way in while they'd been sleeping.  
Someone far too strong to be a fan-femme.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The gym was dark and deserted, the small amounts of light that found themselves able to get in reflecting off of the swimming pool, casting patterns over the walls and the ceilings, and the equipment in the room. Over the Cybertronian femme sitting by the pool's edge.  
She was sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms around her legs with her chin resting on her knees, rocking backwards and forwards slightly, occasionally casting a nervous glance up at the clock on the wall.  
She'd only been waiting for about five minutes when the door at the far end of the gym cracked open slightly with a loud creak. The femme got to her feet warily and hid behind a pillar, eyeing the door as a small figure scurried through it, shutting it behind him. Thankfully it was a small, scuttling figure she recognised. The one she'd been waiting for.  
"Ironhide!"  
"Clara!" Ironhide hurried across the room towards her and hugged her. "I didn't keep you waiting, did I?"  
"No. I only just got here."  
Ironhide breathed a sigh of relief.  
"Good. I got out later than I planned."  
"How come?"  
"It looks like someone tried to break into our room last night. Optimus is being finicky about letting people in and out. It took me ages to convince him to let me come."  
Clara smiled and slipped her hand into his.  
"Well, you're here now. I'll show you around, if you still want me to."  
"Of course I do!"  
The two friends were looking around the school quietly for the better part of the next hour, telling each other about friends and family, and the kind of things they enjoyed doing.  
All too soon they got back to the door to the basement, and it was time for Ironhide to go. He hesitated.  
"What's wrong?" Clara asked him, looking at him uncertainly.  
It was a minute before Ironhide answered, and when he did it was in a voice that she had to strain to be able to hear.  
"I don't want to leave."  
Clara hesitated for a moment, and kissed him.  
"Trust me. If you lived here you would want to leave."  
Ironhide smiled as she helped him open the trapdoor, and he climbed down.

"Ironhide?" Ironhide shifted slightly in his sleep but made no other response as somebody poked him. "Ironhide?" Such a lovely dream … he didn't want it to end. If this person woke him up they would be dead.  
Lucky for that person, it was another person that actually woke him up.  
"IRONHIDE!"  
Ironhide jerked awake with a start.  
"Optimus. Stop. Yelling."  
His friend gave him an irritated look.  
"Well, Bumblebee couldn't wake you up by poking."  
Ironhide sat up properly and yawned, rubbing his blurred optics, and paid proper attention to his surroundings for the first time. It was still late. He'd probably been asleep for no longer than half an hour. Bumblebee was leaning over him. Optimus was crouched down near the foot of his bed, watching the door.  
"What's going on?" Ironhide asked, climbing out of bed.  
"Someone's trying to get in." Bumblebee whispered. "I think Optimus scared them off when he woke you up though."  
No such luck. At that moment the door almost bent and broke under the force of the blows hammering down on it from the other side. A couple of locks snapped. Ironhide had no idea how he'd been able to sleep through that. The noise was horrific.  
"Who's there?" Bumblebee called before Optimus or Ironhide could stop him.  
There was a deep chuckling from behind the door, which slammed open, and Ironhide woke up.  
"Ironhide?" Optimus asked uncertainly. "You awake?"  
"Yeah." Ironhide replied, sitting up and looking around the room. It was morning. The door and its many locks looked fine. "What happened?"  
"You were having a nightmare." Optimus replied, sitting down on his bed on the opposite side of the room.  
"What day is it?"  
Optimus tilted his head, giving him a concerned look.  
"It's Saturday." He told him. "Ironhide, are you okay?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Ironhide got out of the bed, rubbing his tired optics.  
They looked up as someone knocked on the door, and Sentinel's voice came through it.  
"Boys! Stay in there! No matter what you do, don't come out!"  
They heard Sentinel running down the hall, knocking on doors and repeating the message.  
"Guess that means we're staying." Optimus shrugged. "That's okay. Longer without fan-femmes bugging me."  
Ironhide gave him an irritated look.  
"It's all right for you. I was hoping to see Clara today, since we don't have any lessons."  
Suddenly there was the sound of something huge slamming into the side of the school, hard enough to shake the whole building.  
"Screw this." Optimus said as soon as the building was stable again, "I'm not hanging around here. I'm gonna find out what's going on."  
He quickly dismantled his locks and darted outside. Ironhide and Bumblebee looked at each other for a moment, and then sprinted out after him.  
Optimus was a couple of corners away already, in the direction that Sentinel wasn't. He turned a corner too fast and slammed into someone who was running in the opposite direction, knocking them both to the ground.  
Optimus pulled a face and sat up. His head hurt from where he'd slammed it against the floor as he fell. The femme he had slammed into was only slightly shorter than he was. She wore dark green armour and her battle mask was raised under her helmet. Her optics were bright green.  
"I'm sorry!" she said as soon as she sat up. "Are you all right?"  
"I'm fine." Optimus replied, getting to his feet and helping her up. "Sorry. That was my fault."  
They looked round at the sound of running footsteps, and Ironhide and Bumblebee raced round the corner towards them.  
"Clara?" Ironhide yelled as soon as he saw her. "What are you doing here?"  
"My little sister came over here, I was following her." Clara replied, going and hugging Ironhide.  
"I think I saw a little femme run past me when I was coming this way." Bumblebee commented. "She was following another femme, so I don't know if it was your sister."  
Clara frowned and thought for a moment.  
"She must've been following Kaitlynn." She muttered, "But Kaitlynn wouldn't dare come anywhere near here."  
"Why don't we just go and look?" Optimus asked, running past the two in the direction Clara had been going in.  
The other three looked round at each other for a moment, and then set off after him.  
After a few twists and turns, and a surprised and annoyed Sentinel who started following them, they came to the edge of a corridor, and Optimus skidded to a halt, holding an arm out for the others to do the same.  
"What's wrong?" Clara asked him nervously.  
"There are people down there." Optimus whispered back, "Listen."  
They listened. Sure enough, there was the sound of people talking down the corridor. You didn't even have to be quiet to hear them. Optimus looked round the wall warily.  
"Decepticons." He whispered. "I can see Megatron and Starscream. I think Starscream's got Annalease."  
"Which way are they facing?" Clara asked quietly.  
Optimus frowned slightly at the question.  
"They've got their backs to us." He replied, "They're looking at something on the floor."  
Clara nodded, hesitated, and darted across the corridor, coming to a stop at the opposite wall, where she could look round it and see what was going on for herself. Optimus blinked and gave Ironhide a look.  
"What's going on?" Sentinel asked suddenly, not even bothering to quieten his voice.  
Optimus turned on him, hissing at him to shut up.  
"They're coming." Clara warned them quietly.  
"Clara, run." Ironhide hissed at her.  
Too late. Megatron grabbed Clara, and threw her down the corridor to where the other two Rogues were. She landed on her back at the foot of a wall, coughing.  
Optimus put his head back against the wall and kept silent. Megatron and Starscream hadn't noticed them yet, and they wouldn't be any help to Clara if they were dead.  
To his surprise he didn't have to hold back an anxious Ironhide. His friend didn't make a move. Probably because he was frozen with fear.  
Optimus watched round the corner. They hadn't hurt Clara any more than throwing her down the corridor. Starscream had a very young femme straining in his arms, looking down at a slightly older femme on the floor. As they watched, Megatron picked up the femme on the floor and slung her over his shoulder, and Optimus noticed for the first time that she had something, like a medallion or something, dangling from her hand. Starscream threw the younger femme and she landed on Clara, and then the two Decepticons were gone with the Rogue sparkling.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Clara had had a hug for Ironhide, but nothing more than a muttered greeting for Optimus, her voice cold. Ironhide was surprised to find that the two knew each other, but the only explanation they gave him was that they'd met through their fathers and made to spend the summer together two years ago.  
Now she had gone with her sister back to the Rogue school, and Sentinel had the whole school in the assembly hall to explain to them that there had been a Decepticon attack and they were all going to take refuge in the Rogue school.  
It took an hour for them all to file down the tunnel that led to the Rogue school, even longer than it should have because the students were so surprised and wanted to stop and mess around. Most of the femmes were making disgusted sounds as they walked through the sewer, but the Rogue headmaster had been told what was happening, and sent Clara and a boy to help out. The boy seemed uncertain, but Clara was perfectly at ease, unphased by the sewer water that flowed up her legs. She walked with the three boys, and they exchanged anxious mutterings.  
"Who was that Megatron took?" Bumblebee asked her curiously.  
"Kaitlynn." Clara replied. "My little sister. Annalease saw her leaving and followed her."  
"You said Kaitlynn wouldn't dare come anywhere near the Autobot school." Ironhide remembered, "Why did she go?"  
Clara hmphed.  
"She was running away from me." She admitted. "Little shit stole my medallion. I was trying to get it back. Cornered her in the basement and she ran through the tunnel."  
Her bad language shocked Ironhide, even though he'd known that Clara and her sister hated each other. But a look at the femme showed him that she was deeply upset about the whole thing.  
"Surely your father would be eager to keep you away from here though." Optimus said suddenly, "He wouldn't want another daughter taken."  
Clara smirked.  
"I think he was hoping that Megatron would see me and realise that he'd taken the wrong sibling." Clara replied, "He was hoping he'd let Kaitlynn go and take me instead."  
"Surely your father isn't that heartless." Ironhide commented as they came to the ladder into the Rogue school. The going was slow here as they waited for people to climb up it.  
"He is." Clara and Optimus replied at the same time.  
"Clara?" Sentinel called from up ahead where he was seeing the students up the ladder, "Could you go ahead and direct the students to wherever it is your father wants them please?"  
Clara nodded and ran up ahead, leaving the three Autobots waiting in line.  
"What was all that about?" Ironhide asked out loud.  
"Hm?" Optimus was distracted, "Oh, her father's the headmaster of the Rogue school." He told him.  
"He is?" Ironhide was surprised by this piece of information, "Oh, not that, all that about Megatron taking the wrong sibling."  
Optimus's expression darkened.  
"It's not my place to say." He replied, "You'll have to ask her about it."  
Ironhide gave him a questioning look, tilting his head.  
"How do you know so much about her?" He asked him curiously.  
Optimus hesitated.  
"We spent the whole summer together, just the two of us." He reminded him, "You tend to learn a lot about each other."  
Ironhide looked him up and down suspiciously.  
"A lot of things can happen when two mechs spend the whole summer alone together." He pointed out, his voice full of dread. "How far did you go?"  
"Who said we went anywhere?" Optimus asked him.  
"Don't avoid the question, Prime." Ironhide said angrily. Bumblebee was looking between the two fearfully. "Just tell me."  
Optimus watched his friend for a minute, taking a step backwards to keep up with the line, his blue optics searching his face.  
"We went the whole way." He admitted finally.  
Ironhide sighed, closing his optics and putting his head in his hands.  
Bumblebee took a step away and dashed up the ladder. Optimus followed and it was a few minutes before Ironhide had recovered enough to follow after him.  
"It was a long time ago, Hide." Optimus reminded him as they carried on walking. "As you can tell, we've both moved on."  
Ironhide shook his head.  
"Why didn't she tell me?" He asked himself quietly.  
Optimus snorted.  
"A femme's not just gonna tell you her whole sex life on the first date." He pointed out.  
Ironhide turned on him angrily as they left the basement.  
"And you?" He demanded, "Why didn't you tell me?"  
Optimus frowned at him.  
"I didn't know you were dating the same Clara." He reminded him, "It wasn't gonna be relevant if you were dating a completely different femme."  
Ironhide hmphed.  
"Why did you do it?" He hissed at him as they filed into the assembly hall.  
Optimus sighed and shook his head.  
"I told you, Hide, it was a long time ago."  
"Just tell me!"  
He gave him a surprised look.  
"Like I said, it was just the two of us all summer." He said, "We came from similar backgrounds and families, we could sympathise with each others situations." He took on a lighter tone, "True she spent the summer going out of her way to annoy me." He remembered. He glanced at Ironhide and sighed again when he saw his tactic wasn't working. "What does it matter, Hide?" He asked him, "It's passed, we've both moved on, she's with you now."  
Ironhide caught the slight resentment in his friend's voice and gave him a suspicious look. Bumblebee was sat a little apart from the three of them.  
"Optimus!" A small voice cried out suddenly, and they looked up to see Clara's youngest sister, Annalease, running towards them.  
"Hey!" Optimus greeted her warmly, pulling her into his arms and sitting her down on his lap. Ironhide looked away as he spoke to her, and caught Clara's eye at the edge of the hall, where she was watching the pair uncertainly. She noticed him looking at her and gave him a smile before slipping out the door as her father walked in, his glare showing his resentment at the brother-sister relationship his youngest daughter held with Optimus. Ironhide remembered what Clara had told him about Annalease always wanting a big brother and his hands clenched to fists on his lap.  
He should've known it was too good to be true.  
The headmaster of the Rogue school gave them a speech and told them to pair up, or make a group with, one of the students from the Rogue school before the day was over. Someone they would share a dorm and lessons with.  
It was a unanimous agreement between the three friends that they would be staying with Clara and Annalease in the dorm they shared.  
When the assembly was over Optimus asked Annalease to show them the way. She took his hand excitedly and pulled him towards the door, bouncing along the whole way.  
With Annalease dragging Optimus on up ahead and Bumblebee hurrying to follow them, Ironhide couldn't really afford to fall behind. But in the crowds he quickly lost the others. He stopped walking and calmed his breathing. He couldn't panic, that would be the worst thing to do. He was just lost and alone in the Rogue school, and chances were Optimus and Bumblebee hadn't even realised he was no longer following them.  
"Hey." Ironhide jumped as he felt a hand close around his arm and turned to see Clara. "You okay?"  
Ironhide breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.  
"Yeah." He assured her, "Annalease was leading Optimus and Bumblebee to your dorm, and we got split up."  
For some reason, Clara's optics widened at his words.  
"They're going to my dorm?" She asked, shocked.  
Ironhide nodded cautiously.  
Clara took off down the corridor the way the others had disappeared, and Ironhide hurried after her. They got upstairs and found themselves at the end of the corridor leading to her dorm just as the others reached the door.  
"Hold up!" Clara called to them.  
Optimus and Annalease stopped and turned to them as Bumblebee opened the door. He let out a yelp and slammed the door shut again just as Clara and Ironhide got there.  
"Watch what you're doing." Clara scolded him, opening the door again and going in.  
The others crowded inside the large dorm as Clara picked up the small infant from the ground. The sparkling in her arms was only about two years old. She was clutching a teddy bear to her chest, her bright blue optics watching the newcomers curiously. Optimus sat down heavily on one of the beds, shaking, as Annalease joined her sister and reached up to touch the sparkling's hand. It took only a moment for Ironhide to realise what was happening.  
"Oh, no." He whispered, leaning back against the door frame for support. "It's _his_?" He asked, nodding to Optimus.  
"I think that much is obvious, Hide." Optimus said quietly, raising his head to look at Clara. "Your father lets you keep her in here?" He asked, surprised.  
Clara shook her head.  
"He and Kaitlynn don't even know she exists." She replied, gently handing her to him. "I thought it would be safer that way."  
Optimus nodded as he took his daughter off of her uncertainly, cradling her carefully in his arms. The infant looked at him with shocked blue optics as he looked up at her mother again.  
"What's her name?" He asked her curiously, but there was something else in his voice, beside the uncertainty and the seriousness.  
Clara managed a small smile.  
"Kodi."


End file.
